little match girl passion
July, August 2016 \ Perez Art Museum Miami, The School | Jack Shainman Gallery \ produced by IlluminArts Miami \ by David Lang \ director R. B. Schlather \ music director Amanda Crider \ costume Terese Wadden \ photos Francisco Javier Moraga Escalona \ with Anne-Carolyn Bird, Karim Sulayman, Brennan Hall, Zachary James, and Michael Zell
“Director R. B. Schlather, who has done open opera productions at a NYC gallery, wanted people to be free to come and go, to make match girl a fluid part of their visit…Lang’s piece came alive for artists and audience in ways that would have been impossible had the two been separated by the formal distance of a traditional proscenium theater. Afterward, the excitement in the crowd was palpable.”
— Miami Herald
“For this program, IlluminArts was inspired by the superb Colombian artist Doris Salcedo, whose exhibit is currently showing at PAMM. Rooted in the ubiquitous violence, loss and trauma of her homeland, her works have a dark but poetic beauty. Not unlike the tragic but lyrical 19th-century tale from Hans Christian Andersen, “The Little Match Girl,” where a starving girl dies of cold on a street in Denmark, ignored by those walking by her. In both there is some suggestion of ultimate hope, but it’s a hope that that seems far from the literal suffering.It was powerful stuff on all levels this evening at PAMM…The entire combined visual and aural effect was mesmerizing.”
— Knight Foundation
